MovieChat Forums > Fear (1996) Discussion > The Dad Trashes The House?

The Dad Trashes The House?


C’mon. That’s where this lost me. A grown man with some much to lose isn’t gonna go trash the house of the kid he wants to stay away from his daughter. That was poorly written. Really silly.

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He was incensed when he saw the photoshopped pic of his family where David had inserted himself in the dad's place. He perhaps went a bit too far--but that created the motivation for David's gang to go to his house.

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Right. They needed a plot device to have the gang go to the house. The means in which they created the device would never happen in real life. Well to do middle aged man with a family isn’t destroying the home of a teenager bc he thinks he’s a punk hahaha. Way way too much to lose.

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I agree it's mostly a plot device. He could have been more quiet about it and on vandalize David's room a bit and not tear it up so much if he was that pissed. Legit no reason for him to vandalize the other associate's rooms.

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You say that would “never happen in real life” but I don’t agree. Much crazier things have happened in real life. And sometimes good people do bad things. Or people do something completely unexpected due to them being overcome with emotion, anger, fear, etc…

This was immediately after David trashed Steve’s Mustang. Which is his pride and joy. It’s not unreasonable to believe he would have revenge on his mind and want to trash something of David’s. The fact that once inside David’s house, Steve found his own family photo ruined with David’s face taking the place of Steve’s and Nicole’s bracelet from her dad that now was changed to “David’s girl” just added fuel to the fire in that moment. I think it’s reasonable and could have definitely happened in real life. Just because you wouldn’t do something doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t.

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Yeah, but there is literally no reason for him to wreck the rooms of David's partners. You actually would think that someone like Mr. Walker would know to not mess with the other criminals. As far as he knew, his friends had absolutely nothing to do with David's obsession with Nicole. He could have torn up David's room all he wanted while leaving the other rooms in perfect condition and I highly doubt David would been like "Mr. Walker trashed my room and I need you all to help me get back at him". I am sure he would have been fine handling that on his own. Him trashing his buddies rooms in addition seems to be more of a plot device to set up the final showdown in the way they desired.

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Maybe it was a way to drive the plot to the home invasion scene in the end. I’m not arguing that point. I’m simply saying Steve’s response was something that could be expected in real life.

You say there was zero reason for him to destroy the other bedrooms of David’s friends. I don’t remember how Steve finds David’s address (I think he makes a phone call to a friend) but how do we know Steve wasn’t under the impression that was David’s house? If Steve believed that was David’s house then destroying the whole house would make perfect sense. He’s getting back at him.

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Well initially it doesn't seem he planned on destroying the house from the beginning, he just wanted to confront him or see what he was up to. After finding stuff that belonged to him and Nicole, he flew into a rage. It just seems odd he would take his anger out on David's criminal buddies when they didn't have anything to do with Nicole. Either it's a plot device or he's plain stupid (the second one does seem reasonable since he went alone to a house where criminals lived where he could have been in danger).

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Fair enough. Either way I still love this movie.

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David trashed his vintage Mustang so it was a measured response

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